Managing Museum Resources

Author: Charlotte Bell
Organization: University of Denver

1134 A. Lafayette St.
Denver, CO 80218
USA

Phone: 303-832-5678
Fax: 303-871-2201
cbell@du.edu

The Museum of Anthropology at the University of Denver is committed to educating diverse constituencies including Native Americans, cultural resource managers, academic archaeologists, and students. In 1999, managing museum resources using GIS technology ceased to be one of the items on the collections manager's "wish list" and instead became a student's capstone project. Museum data is fundamentally spatial. This GIS project makes information readily accessible to qualified users, both within the museum and across the Internet. Colorado Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) materials were selected as the pilot collection. This paper documents the entire process, from the planning phase to pilot implementation, sustainability, and project extensibility. Museum professionals, Native Americans, and researchers using museum collections may find this case study useful for their own GIS implementations.